it's sacre' with an acute accent, isn't it? I thought it meant sacred, but I don't know why the blue. I've never heard anyone say it, not even an English speaker. Merde!
probably blue as an allusion to the Virgin Mary's robe? and yes sacred i think
most archaic swearing seemed to be related to religion or bowel actions!.
Sacré blue does indeed require the accute accent, and it does indeed mean "holy blue," and, according to our site member, Joefromchicago . . .
WindyCityJoe wrote:"Sacré bleu" is a substitute for "sacré Dieu" (holy God), not "sacré coeur, in much the same way that "gosh" is a substitute for "God" or "cripes" is a substitue for "Christ" in English. "Bleu" and "Dieu" rhyme, so the inoffensive "blue" is substituted for the profane "God."
Many good examples here.
An all too common usage that grates on my ears is the use of less in reference to numerable objects, when fewer is appropriate.
The use of further for farther and vice versa. Further implies time, and farther implies distance.
The college is farther than my high school was. I'm going there to further my education.
We are going to dissect a frog in class.
It's pronounced dis-sect', not die'sect.
It's confused with bi'-sect.
well, you know; the thing which, you know, annoys me most, is, you know, Americans speaking, you know, 'Englush'!
You know?
and a lot of the useless, wordy alternatives for simple words really burn my 'in back of'!
Re: More wincing over bad English
Setanta wrote:ailsagirl wrote: It's very lovely to listen to.
I think i'm gonna be ill . . .
Gag me with a spoon . . .
C'mon now, be honest; it's rather 'melodic', and highly 'entertaining'!
[especially when coming from the mouth of an absolute 'knockout']
I think i know who you might have in mind . . .
thanks for the compliment..........
about the 'mind', i mean, you know!
Now there's something which drives me up the wall when people constantly say it . . . ya know?
Gee Set; what would that be, eh?
I disremember now . . . les go get some doughnuts, eh? I'll take a jumbo triple-triple coffee, too, please . . . thankee very much . . .
Er, i thought (exageration) 'jumbo triple-triple' was a Canadia/en security warning level, eh?
Yeah, it means: "When i finish this, do not block the path to the rest room . . . "
or you might have a serious 'euphemism'!!
More grins (or cringes)
I heard a Sacramento (California) news station describe all the graduations occurring in the area as "Pomp and Circumstances," and they weren't trying to be funny!
I was wondering about idioms-- does anyone know if America has more of them in its lexicon than, say, England? And I wonder if other languages have as many idioms as the English language.
In England, it's perfectly acceptable to say, "Keep your pecker up," but if you were to say that in America, you might get some strange looks!
And I believe it's in Iran that the thumbs up sign is tantamount to flipping someone off. Yikes!
Ailsa
Slight tanget: In bulgaria shaking you head means yes, and nodding your head means no.
Ooh! I brought up one of my own english pet peeves. See if you can find it!
Hmm; something to do with a sharp pain on your 'colon', causing your 'semi' to crash out of control, putting you in a 'comma'?
That should bring those latent 'peeves' to the surface!
